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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5930279" data-attributes="member: 22424">Simply put, "exploration" is "discovering the unknown". That could be literal exploration (having the players map out the dungeon underground), but it also includes such things as finding the hidden treasures, solving the in-game puzzles to find hidden areas, or even simply discovering the identity of the murderer, the secrets of the puppetmaster, or whatever else.Pretty much everyone does at least some exploration in the game - any time there's a hidden trap on the battlemap, chances are you might explore it the hard way! However, different groups will, of course, put a different emphasis on the different pillars.It's a "challenge the players" thing. To a large extent, combat is about building my character correctly, and then optimising my use of resources, which has a certain mechanical charm.But exploration proper is something that only lightly intersects with the mechanics - even if the game includes Search mechanics (and the like), I still need to think where to apply them to unlock the secrets of the adventure.Plus, seeing new things is cool.Aye, that would be an example of exploration handled poorly, or at least in a fairly lazy manner. Basically, it sounds like an opportunity for a vindictive DM to spring 'gotchas' on you the moment you don't search for traps in the exact same places and the exact same ways as every other time.(A while back, I posted a fairly lengthy rant about my issues with trap and secret door placement in adventures. Fundamentally, if these things are just a matter of rolling the obvious dice in the obvious ways, they're not worth bothering with.)Hopefully, 5e will address exploration in a more full-bodied manner, and will actual advise DMs where and how to place things, rather than merely describing what things they can place. And hopefully the published adventures will then also learn these lessons.I'm not holding my breath on either count, though. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /></blockquote>

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